I mentioned in my MAJOR Wardrobe Malfunction post that we went to Montana’s to celebrate MrCutie’s 9th birthday.  The kiddos always get to pick where they can go for their birthday dinner, and he wanted to go there so they would come and put the Antler Hat on him and sign him a song and stuff.  He was quite excited.

We went to Montana’s on a Saturday afternoon about 3pm (we had a late breakfast so we were just going to have a big late lunch/early dinner including dessert).  The restaurant was pretty quiet.  MrCutie told every staff person  he saw that it was his birthday.  Did I mention he was excited?

We ate our meal, and MrCutie was kinda looking around, very excited, waiting and hoping for noise and staff to start coming from the kitchen to sing to him and put the funky hat on his head…

… they never did.

Our waitress brought out his dessert (she actually didn’t even ask him which one he wanted – he was supposed to have a choice on the kid’s menu…) and said, “I tried to get everyone to come and sing, but they are all too busy.”

No singing, no hat, no hoopla….

MrCutie put a brave face on, and we sang to him ourselves.  Half way through his ice cream, though, he broke down in tears, so sad and disappointed that they hadn’t made a big deal for him.  He has quite a vocabulary, and he said something like, “Mom, I’m really sad and disheartened,” while sobbing into my shoulder.

conciliatory wearing of the Antler Hat (MrCutie)

Needless to say, I was sad and disappointed for him, too.  We flagged the waitress down and asked her to at least bring the hat over.  We made a big deal about the antlers and tried to salvage the meal.  But we were all disappointed.  MrCutie deserved something better, and we were all feeling upset about it.  Our waitress didn’t even ask us if we wanted dessert before or after bringing MrCutie’s ice cream… It was weird.

Not wanting to make a bigger deal of it while MrCutie was with us, as upset as he already was, we didn’t talk to the manager or anything while we were there.  But my Sweetie noted on our receipt there was number to call or a website to go to and fill out a survey.  He filled out the survey as soon as we got home!

Sweetie was careful to recount the events of the afternoon on the survey, and the disappointment our birthday boy felt.  He also said that our children get a choice of where to go for birthday dinners, and he doubted seriously that any of them would choose Montana’s again.  He submitted the survey online, and we decided that if we didn’t hear from someone at Montana’s within a week that we’d follow up with a phone call as well.

Sunday morning (the next day) while we were at church we got a call from the manager at Montana’s.  Her voicemail message expressed how badly they felt for how awful MrCutie had been treated.  She said that she and a couple of her staff members were in tears while reading the survey and thinking about how disappointing it must have been for our little guy.  Her message concluded by saying that they wanted to make it up to him and to please contact them right away.

After church we were getting ready to head out of town, but Sweetie called and talked to the manager who apologized profusely and repeatedly.  She said they were prepared to fix it all RIGHT AWAY, like that night, with a $50 gift card for our meal and a big to-do over MrCutie, the way it should have been done the first time.  Since we were heading out of town that day, we couldn’t do it right away, so we arranged to call when we got home to set it all up.

When we got back from our trip, Sweetie called Montana’s and set up dinner for the next evening.  We explained to MrCutie what was going on and he was VERY excited again.  Then I could at least be hopeful that, while not being able to replace the awful experience, he would still be excited to have a special time.

So, MrCutie got a “Do Over” for his birthday dinner at Montana’s!

We did get the royal treatment that night. We were seated right away, and the manager brought us our gift card as soon as we were seated.  Nothing was specifically said to MrCutie about it being a do-over, but our waitress was very attentive and everything was really good.  Then after we’d all finished our dinner, the WHOLE staff came out to sing to MrCutie, with the antler hat, and a BIG cake with his name on it and candles and everything.  Not everybody gets a whole cake with candles (that was part of the ‘making up for last time’).  And yes, he was VERY excited!

You only turn 9 once, and I’m glad that Montana’s wanted to make it right. I was really unsure if it actually would make it up to MrCutie.  Thankfully, he was VERY pleased overall, happy to have another night ‘out’ with a special cake and everything.  We also didn’t dwell on the ‘other’ time, so hopefully it won’t be a huge awful thing for him to remember later. And hopefully, after this incident, no other little kid will ever be disappointed like that at Montana’s ever again!

Thanks, Montana’s, for making MrCutie’s 9th birthday dinner experience right!